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Paper should apologize for missing recent event

Letters to the editor should be sent to Canby Herald Editor John Baker at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To the editor:

You're kidding right? The past two weeks have been letters to the editor concerning the honoring of WWII veteran Bill Guttermansen, who was recognized during an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.

He was further honored when he returned to Canby with a large, welcoming crowd. The Canby event was arranged by a new Canby resident, Charity Payne. Charity saw the need, got on Facebook and made personal appeals to enlist assistance and attendance.

She got help from Cutsforth's Market, the fire department, Canby Ford and others. The Patriot Guard motorcycle group gave him an escort down Highway 99E from Oregon City and into town. The local TV and city officials were on hand, 200 people showed up. But the big missing entity was the Canby Herald.

Good grief, this was a big local event to honor a long-time Canby resident and the local paper, although invited, wasn't there. I think that Bill and all Canby residents deserve an apology form the Canby Herald.

Maureen Whitman

Canby

(Editor's Note: While the Canby Herald agrees that the event was a valuable one, it also must be noted that the paper has been particularly short-staffed over the last five-plus weeks (Senior Reporter Daniel Pearson, who planned to coer the event, broke four ribs just a couple days prior), making getting to some things difficult. Additionally, there is never any guarantee about what we can or cannot get to, particularly for a Sunday event. We work hard and long and deserve some down time to recharge and be with family, and that was part of the case in this situation (See Sunday reference above). If people can't understand that, that's their shortcoming, not ours. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out. While we laud the effort to honor Bill as so very deserving, we absolutely don't need to apologize for anything, particularly in the shadow of the mountain of events we do cover throughout the year. We also previewed this event for several weeks beforehand, which is what was asked of us initially.)